The Cobbler. Largs.

After two weeks of poor weather a long awaited, not too be missed, sunny day dawned so I decided on a return visit to The Cobbler an hours drive away. The best thing about all of Scotland's cities is how easy it is to escape them into fantastic landscape. I motored out via Milngavie and Drymen just for a change. These next two pictures were taken five minutes car journey from my door. Surprisingly this is the first time I've stopped for a photograph here,I suppose you can even get used to Eden's kiss.

I reached the car park for the Arrochar Alps after a pleasant glide up Loch Lomondside, soft dappled sunlight coming down through the trees into my eyes. I love days like this. Exciting new music drifting from the speakers, munching seedless grapes and extra mature cheddar cheese cubes, drinking ice cold fiery ginger beer. Bliss for all the senses.

A swift jaunt on ice covered paths with crampons and ice axe swinging brought me crunching over the slopes to the halfway boulders. From here the mountain steepens further into rock walls and overhanging cliffs. Its a fantastic little hill much loved by the outdoor crowds normally seen here.
This was where we went wrong a few months ago at new year. At least now I could see where we,d missed the gap. Easy done in such poor visibility.

Deep fresh snow lay ahead but luckily two brave souls had waded on, forging a trail up under the overhangs into the central gully then up towards the ridgeline.

I followed half expecting it to be a keen young team but it turned out to be a couple a few years older than myself. Cant beat experience on the hills! We seemed to be the only folk on the summit ridge so I followed them round the three famous spires.

It was getting late and very cold so all too soon it was time to descend again, sun sinking slowly over the islands.

Great reflections awaited in the still waters of the loch beside the village of Arrochar.

Also had this close up view of a ptarmigan, a bird of the high mountains, presumably happy with all the snow as its winter plumage made it harder for hungry foxes to catch it.

Smashing day. How come Alex misses some of the best ones? Ah yes, I forgot, he's got a social life :o) Never mind I found a substitute look-a- like companion in the area.

Although raining a great deal during the day recently evening sunsets have been both exceptional and varied in colour.
Must be all the moist air presumably. Sometimes a mere hour of sunshine ,a single glimpse of golden honey after a long dull morning and afternoon rewarded my patience during rubbish weekends.

I've been down at Largs a fair bit over the last six months. Here's the best of the views before darkness swallowed the light and I ventured back indoors to warm the trusting hearts of faeries. 

Binnein an Fhidhleir.

23rd January 2011.

It`s not been a great start to the year weatherwise so here`s a short trip report from January.

Gavin,Bob and I took a wee trip up to Arrochar for an ascent of Binnein an Fhidhleir.It`s an ideal area for the shorter January days as it`s only an hours drive from the house.To tell the truth we weren`t exactly sure where we were going until we arrived there.Bob fancied Beinn Narnain,I fancied a Graham down by Lochgoilhead and Gavin didn`t seem to give a hoot where he went....we somehow ended up at the bottom of the west ridge of Fhidhleir as it reaches down to Loch Fyne.It was a dry day but a bit too much greyness around for our liking although the forecast promised a brighter spell by lunchtime.It was a day for nattering away to each other and we wandered up the ridge hands in pockets in no rush.We could have taken the usual way up via a quick flog from Butterbridge but,as I say,we were in no rush and opted for the longer ascent.

Looking back down to Loch Fyne on the ascent...

Further on up Beinn an Lochain was almost opposite us...

The promised weather window never seemed to materialise although it kept threatening.The Paps of Jura and the hills of Mull were visible but a wee bit hazy and not worth getting the camera out.
The nearby Arrochar Alps were the main focus of interest.

Gavin and Beinn Ime....

The view over to Loch Restil and the Rest and Be Thankful....

A sheltered spot out of the bitter wind for lunch and then we headed back to the car the way we had came.The prospect of a visit to the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar had Gavin salivating as we neared the road and we accompanied him around the shop as he loaded up with obscure cheeses.Gavin takes great delight in bagging smelly cheeses and compiles a bagging list I think of the worlds best/worst top ten :)

 Worlds smelliest cheese 

He was reminiscing on the way home about the time Steve and him tried their hand at the worlds worst smelling food........the Durian

Apparently Steve`s wife was not at all amused and had to vacate the house with the kids :)

Loch Fyne...

Pico Jabalcuza and Monte Palomas.

17th January 2011

A £20 inc. tax return to Malaga proed too tempting to ignore :) One half of the Blue Sky Scotland clan descended on the Costa del Sol to vist relations.Mrs.Blue Sky and myself were staying with her sister and my dad and his pal,preferring a more active clubbing style of nightlife headed for the fleshpots further west in Fuengirola :) Mrs. Blue Sky and her sister like to wander from shop to shop with a wee break for a coffee and brandy on the hour each hour so I usually have most of the time to myself. I wander down to the beach for sunrise....

...have a walk and buy a couple of rolls and The Guardian on the way back home and have breakfast in front of the pool and admire the Sierra Nevada in  the distance...

Then I have a think about what hill to go up.I had never been up the hills to the east of Benalmadena so decided to take a toddle up there.I couldn`t find any decent maps so imprinted the Google Earth image into my brain and headed off one fine morning quite early.As I suspected the hardest part of the day was to actually reach the bottom of the hill.From the station at El Pinillo I wandered through an industrial estate up to the motorway and traversed alongside that until I found an underpass which took me to the entrance to a quarry and a route up the hills.
Following my nose I went through a gap in a fence which seemed to go in the right direction.After 100 metres there was complete silence thank God.The hole in the fence seemed to serve the local builders with a ready made access point to fly tip their rubbish as after five minutes I came upon all sorts of debris.Never mind though...the hills beckoned...

As the natural approach to the hills I had hoped to find a path and indeed I did...

Further up the glen...

I wandered slowly up enjoying the contrast to the coast below.There were loads of flocks of brightly coloured little birds but try as I did I couldn`t get close to them for an ID.A couple of hours seen me up on the ridge itself where a signpost indicated that Pico Jabalcuza was a mere 2km away to the east.Wanting to extend the day however I first of all went over to Monte Palomas.The weather up to now had been great but the cloud came down on the way to the summit.Nothing as bad as winter in Scotland however :) A mega trig point stood at the high point....

I hung around for half an hour and eventually the sun came back out as I left to go over to Pico Jabalcuza.The terrain underfoot was a mixture of limestone and scrub and very dry which was just as well as I only had a pair of trainers with me.

Pico Jabalcuza with Alhaurin el Grande down below...

The going underfoot along the ridge...

Wonky summit trig on Jabalcuza.....

I spent a few hours up here just enjoying the peace and quiet and had a wee snooze into the bargain :)

The mist was still clinging to the ridge over towards Mount Calamorro...more of a heat haze really.
Self timer on the trig...

A night out on the tiles with my 89 year old dad and his pal Freddie in Fuengirola and a day up in Mijas were the only other things of note in the five days.

A Spanish attempt at bringing a little colour to Mijas is put to shame by Mrs.Blue Sky`s new hair colour .....

New Year Bothy trip.

 1st January 2011

It`s only the first week in February and already I think we have a backlog of six trips to blog.I`ll make a start with this one.

A New Year bothy tour was once the highlight of our year but as we get older our ability to love the cold and damp diminishes somewhat :) The Mountain Bothies Assocoation ones are usually packed out so we go to lesser known ones nowadays for the odd Hogmanay trip.A small one in Perthshire was this years choice.We reckoned we`d get it to ourselves as it wasn`t well publicised and anyone who did know about it wouldn`t dream of going there in winter as it must rank as one of the coldest bothies in Scotland.!
Six of us met up at the road end and got packed just as the daylight faded....

Lack of daylight wasn`t really a problem as it was only about a three mile walk in along a pretty good track.In view of the fact that it was going to be a cold night we took the precaution of taking in a good load of coal.Gordon and Neil excelled themselves in this respect by carrying a whole bag each while the more mature section made do with one between the four of us :) In addition to the usual winter paraphernalia,the coal,beer,whisky,wine,cake etc; ensured that the rucksacks were packed to the gunnels.As we suspected the bothy was empty on arrival.Two folk started immediately on the fire and another two went out to see if the ice on the loch could be broken for water while Bob and I busied ourselves with a can of beer and watched the proceedings.The ice on the loch proved to be more than a match for us so a frozen stream nearby was attacked instead.We needed this for the whisky :)

After dinner we settled down in front of the fire for a wee refreshment...

It`s a long night in winter in a bothy.Darkness falls at about 4.30 pm and when darkness falls then that means it`s time for a beer or two.As it was now only 6pm we had to pace ourselves to avoid the trap of being legless before the Bells at midnight.We`ve had years of practice at this however :)
Just before midnight Gordon produced a surprise...bottle of champagne and six champagne flutes out of his rucksack.Topped up the glasses and got ready to go outside to welcome in the New Year....

A fantastic canopy of stars kept us occupied for a while but the cold soon drove us back to the comfort of the fire where we continued for a few hours.All except Gavin that is who finds it very difficult to acquire the knack of pacing his intake....

Some of us had to be back in Glasgow for lunchtime on New Years Day so it was a 7am rise.
Dawn outside the bothy....

Walking back out to the cars....

Some of the guys went to do a hill or two while Bob.Gavin and I took our time going back home and stopped a few places here and there to take in the views like this one of Loch Tummel and Schiehallion...

Heart of Darkness.Part Two.

Of course you don't need to go down rancid, rat infested holes in the ground to shake away the cobwebs in your mind. Fear not. Bleak, forbidding  places can also be found above ground as well if you know where to look. Over the years I've assembled a modest gallery of these places. Take my grubby hand and I will guide you to lands that lie to the East of Eden.

 

 

On old maps "Here Be Dragons" could be used for areas unknown or shunned by the general populace. The modern equivalent of this I suppose is the urban housing estates that have acquired a certain, sometimes undeserved, reputation. Unless you live there yourself or know someone they are not the places most people care to visit.

Glasgow, until fairly recently , had some of the most "colourful" housing estates in Europe. We also have some of the best parks and  varied mountain scenery right on our doorstep. But just for once lets visit the dark Mr Hyde instead of sunny Mr Jekyll.

Graffiti has been with us since we lived in caves. It can say the obvious. "This is our place. We live here."

But it can also be more poignant in areas getting knocked down. "We had a life here. This was our area. Will we ever see each other again?" For teenagers too young to have a say in where they are going it may be their only voice. Despite appearances a lot of folk had happy  times in these areas before the community spirit eroded everywhere during the thatcher era. I'm not blaming her entirely its just a fact. It was going downhill before that but she didn't help by throwing so many out of work. Mind you ,that great age of unemployment couldn't happen again, could it? In any case I think its only fair now to capture the last breaths of these stone dragons who have sheltered so many under their care for so many years.



The central belt of Scotland has always had this dual character of great beauty versus gangs and self destruction sitting side by side. Ten minutes walk from this house above are two of the largest and nicest parks in Glasgow with stunning views. Two faces of a coin.
I've been fortunate in my life to experience both having grown up in a fairly "colourful" area perched on a hilltop on the outer edge of the city. Glasgow is built on Drumlins(dozens of small hills) left over from the last ice age.

Luckily for me and my like minded friends though it had an explorers dream country right behind it of busy farms, cow studded meadows, hills, woods, cliffs, dams and deep flooded quarries overlooked by the crumbling towers and ruins of a large estate. This is were we spent most of our free time. It was an enchanted land for us, still is. It saved me from another,much darker life ahead. In life you can go through Mirkwood or Avalon.

 

 

Covers on Books can be misleading. Most of the folk around me then were kind, honest  hardworking people just as you can always find a few nasty ones even in the most exclusive and well heeled  suburbs. I had a childhood I would not swap with anyone's full of excitement, danger and sheer adventure in these dragon filled lands.

 

 

 

No computer game could match this world of amazing sights and discoveries around every corner. Obviously these areas did not look like this until much later, at their end. I've always been fond of my dragons so I had to say one last goodbye to them all. Mind you, In those days children could walk many miles from home together over the fields and no one would worry about strangers. Believe it or not even here it was a more innocent time. I could often be found, even on my own, ten miles from my door aged  twelve, jumping some stream or climbing a hill for the view.(Think this looks rough? These days you are  far more likely to be killed by a stressed mum or dad, late for work on the school run.) This more than anything else set me up for a life time of exploring the outdoors, woods and mountains further afield. Its what I've been doing since I could crawl out the back door of the house. This, surprisingly, is where I formed my love of nature.

 

Update. For the last two years I have been writing a book. It starts off in Pollok/Nitshill, where I grew up, then features chapters on Arrochar, Arran, Loch Lomond, Glencoe, Skye, and many other wild and scenic areas in Scotland. Part autobiography, part novel, part travel guide, part unusual love story it is set around  the humorous adventures of a Glasgow hillwalking club, detailing their relationships, love affairs, falling outs, and weekend trips down caves, visiting islands, climbing mountains and adventures on the high seas over three decades. You can read the first  couple of chapters for free to see if you like it by clicking this link. .http://www.amazon.co.uk/Autohighography-A-Tale-Summits-Sinners-ebook/dp/B00JNAIGAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1397722748&sr=1-1&keywords=autohighography.+bob+law
The full book is £1:85 on kindle e books. Cheaper than a scratch card but with better odds of  some excitement and a chance of a laugh.

It is full of unexpected encounters and dark surprises. Just like life itself.